Whole Community Catechesis - Stick to the Principles

By Bill Huebsch

     In the American Catholic Church today, we’re having a vigorous conversation about how to shift religious education, in both parishes and schools, from being an enterprise focused exclusively on children, to being one focused on the whole community of faith. We know that, without the parental role, little we do with children to form them in faith will have a lasting effect. And unless catechesis is situated within the liturgical life of the Church, learners may know about religion in a cognitive sense, but lack the affective knowledge that comes only from ritual. Furthermore, we know that catechesis is a lifelong matter. It doesn’t stop after First Communion or Confirmation. And we know that it must lead in the end to a lifestyle of faith, to households of faith.

     In this entire conversation, I think it is helpful to distinguish between the various programs being made available for purchase with which to implement whole community catechesis, and the basic principles which should underpin all such programs.

     More and more, publishers are stepping up to the plate to assist parishes and schools in shifting to a wider view of catechesis, in both parish religious ed programs and Catholic schools. They are publishing various programs, both classroom based and intergenerationally based. These programs can be purchased and used in parishes and schools, and if used well, a much broader level of catechesis does occur within the parish or school community.

     But the principles which underpin all this are what we should be careful to maintain. It doesn’t matter what the marketing materials for a published work say about it, if it doesn’t really live up to our principles, then it’s not really whole community catechesis. What are those principles?
•Catechesis and Liturgy must be connected

     First and foremost, whatever you use for religion class must establish the essential link between catechesis and the Sunday Assembly for Mass, the liturgical year, and the whole life of the church. The liturgy is the font of the whole Christian life, including catechesis. But there is often a gap between these two activities. The absolute bedrock of whole community catechesis is that:

     ‑the community “breaks open the Word” proclaimed in the Sunday Assembly for the entire week.

     ‑the whole community comes to see itself as Eucharistic.

•Participation of the households must grow

     Everything we do as we pass on the faith in catechesis must be sent home! The participation of the households who form the community is essential. By this, I don’t mean merely that parents should be present when their children are formed in the faith (which they should, of course). I mean, much more radically, that households must be shaped as Christian homes. The key to this is for us to support marriage and family life more vigorously.

•Conversion to Christ must precede catechesis

     There is a great risk that pastors and teachers will become so consumed with getting all the facts covered, with teaching so much about religion, that the learner never actually meets Christ. But one is not saved by facts about religion. One can study Islam or Judaism, for example, and know their histories, sacred writings, and key figures, but that would not make one a Moslem or a Jew. Knowing about religion is not the same as experiencing the presence of the Risen Christ and turning one’s heart over to Christ by dying to ourselves in faith.

•The homes of the parish are seen as the place where the church lives

     All of this implies very strongly that the households of the parish must become the main focus of redeveloped parish programs. The household is where faith is lived every day. Christian homemaking becomes very important. The household is the context in which whatever we teach in religious education class becomes the stuff of real, everyday living. This means that the parish (and its staff) shifts from being “the center” of the church in our minds, to being instead a “resource center to the church.” The households become the new center. This won’t be an easy shift, but it is an essential one.

•Catechesis must be seen as lifelong

     Of course, this means that we must provide for adult catechesis. This is a high goal in all of whole community catechesis. Providing for youth, young adult, and adult catechesis does not mean we should stop providing it for children. But it means we must stretch ourselves to think larger. The Growing Faith Project was launched last year for this very purpose. Youth and adults must be brought into the learning circles of the parish in creative and attractive ways.

•In sum: adult Christians of mature faith

     Cullen Schippe, a long time Catholic publisher, has summed this up for everyone. In whole community catechesis, he says, the new goal or outcome is “adult Christians of mature faith,” following the Way of Christ, sharing supper and Eucharist, working hard for justice and peace, and turning their hearts to Christ over and over again, throughout their lives. It’s an entirely new framework within which the faith is shared and passed from one generation to the next. New wine, new wine skins.

     Like any change in a framework, this new thinking is challenging for people who are working day-in-and-day-out in the present “school house” framework for religious education. It’s very tough to work in one framework while building another. The house can get quite messy. But it can and must be done.

     You might be wondering to yourself, “But what does this look like? What actually happens? What are the programs like? Who meets where and who does what?” These are the specifics spelled out in a variety of resources being made available today by visionary publishers and authors. But more importantly - much of this detail will be worked out in the exciting environment of your own parish or school! Every parish and school will reinvent this for their local community. Let’s go!

Bill Huebsch is President and Publisher at Twenty-Third Publications in New London, Connecticut and author of The Growing Faith Project. See Resources on pg. 10 for additional works.